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Honor In The Iliad In Ancient Greece

1029 Words5 Pages

Luke Penshorn
Ms. Beutz
Honors English 10
31 March 2023

The Iliad Essay The Iliad is an ancient story by Homer in ancient greece. It may be said that the Iliad was a cautionary tale for the Greeks. The opening line to the book “O muse” it's almost like he is transcribing the story from an elder or storyteller that had heard the story for generations! The Iliad was meant to teach people of certain concepts, and through the interpretation of Homer, he teaches how the Greek gods act and intervene while also being ingrained within Greek society. Through The Iliad we see how the gods are affected by almost petty emotions us humans face. It is shown that the gods are vengeful, and demanding of honor. Through this realization we talk about the themes …show more content…

Honor, The root of all battles and quarrels! It's never about how someone wronged you, it's always about how your honor was disgraced by them and how you stand up for yourself. The gods similarly to the mortals of The Iliad are furious when their honor is trifled with. The gods demand sacrifices and appeasements in their honor for everything within their domain. There is a part in The Iliad where Poseidon is talking with Zeus how he should level the walls of the Acheans encampment by the sea as he was not given a sacrifice. For how the gods gain honor by tributes from the mortals the mortals themselfs gain honor by fighting. Far from the total war of today there once was a form of war where only the soldiers of a nation would come and fight one another for honor and plunder! They would be honored simply for taking place in the battle and the most notable would be …show more content…

He is the best mortal fighter in the war and has slayed countless to his blade! But what other mortals of The Iliad could possibly affect the plot as much as Achilles? Nestor, an old man and close counselor of king Agamemnon. Nestor is a vital part of The Iliad as he motivates all the Acheans and attempts to mend the rift between Achilles and Agamendmon in book one. Later in the beginning of book seven Nestor, in his wisdom, suggests to Aggamendmon to build a defensive wall and ditch which later proves essential in book 13 when the Acheans get driven back to their ships! Without Nestor's foresight the Acheans would have been finished there, but the wall bought enough time for the leaders of the Acheans to find a way to push them back. Nestor Suggests to Patroclus to dawn Achillies armor and bring fear to the Trojans to break their lines for the Acheans to gain the upper hand in the battle. Obviously all of these actions were paramount for the eventual success of the Achaean army! Nestor may have not been the most abled fighter at the time, but his wisdom had guided the Achaeans to

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